Toggle light / dark theme

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Beaming Your Mind to a Starship or Colony

Can we travel the stars without a body? Explore the idea of uploading your mind and transmitting it at light speed to distant starships or colonies—becoming data instead of a passenger.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g/join.
Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-arthur.
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE

Free Will, Quantum & Orchestrated Objective Reduction

An extended exploration of what science tells us about free will and consciousness in a quantum universe, including Sir Roger Penrose’s theory of Orchestrated Objective Reduction.

Watch my exclusive video ISRU: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa
Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
/ @isaacarthursfia.
Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur.
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord.
Episode 353a, June 30, 2024 Written, Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.

Cambridge scientists created a gel that could end arthritis pain

Cambridge scientists have created a breakthrough material that can sense tiny chemical changes in the body, such as the increased acidity during an arthritis flare-up, and release drugs exactly when and where they’re needed. By mimicking cartilage while delivering medication, this smart gel could ease pain, reduce side effects, and provide continuous treatment for millions of arthritis sufferers.

Huntington’s progression slowed by experimental gene therapy

Even hearing the phrase “Huntington’s disease” will make a room suddenly somber. So the joy that accompanied a recent announcement of results of an experimental gene therapy for the deadly diseases signaled an unfamiliar sense of hope.

In a small clinical trial, brain injections of a virus that codes for a tiny segment of RNA may have prevented the formation of the rogue proteins that make Huntington’s so devastating. The early results, announced September 24 in a news release, show that over three years, the treatment slowed Huntington’s progression by up to 75 percent. While not a cure, the treatment could potentially give people living with Huntington’s disease, who might otherwise face early disability and death, the gift of many more years of life.

The surprising new particle that could finally explain dark matter

Physicists are eyeing charged gravitinos—ultra-heavy, stable particles from supergravity theory—as possible Dark Matter candidates. Unlike axions or WIMPs, these particles carry electric charge but remain undetectable due to their scarcity. With detectors like JUNO and DUNE, researchers now have a chance to spot their unique signal, a breakthrough that could link particle physics with gravity.

Video models are zero-shot learners and reasoners

View recent discussion. Abstract: The remarkable zero-shot capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) have propelled natural language processing from task-specific models to unified, generalist foundation models. This transformation emerged from simple primitives: large, generative models trained on web-scale data. Curiously, the same primitives apply to today’s generative video models. Could video models be on a trajectory towards general-purpose vision understanding, much like LLMs developed general-purpose language understanding? We demonstrate that Veo 3 can solve a broad variety of tasks it wasn’t explicitly trained for: segmenting objects, detecting edges, editing images, understanding physical properties, recognizing object affordances, simulating tool use, and more.

/* */